


Of Brothers and Sisters

by silveryink



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang is a cinnamon roll, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Relationships, Big Brother Sokka (Avatar), Brother-Sister Relationships, Brotherhood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gaang (Avatar), Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Post-Canon, Sokka & Zuko (Avatar) Friendship, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko (Avatar) is a Good Brother, because he is, i didn't mean for this to become a 'gaang finds out about the scar' fic but it just Happened, it's in the background tho, may i reiterate that zuko is an excellent brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24773296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: Azula's diagnosis leaves Zuko doubting the merit of his actions as a brother. It's up to his friends - hisfamily- to help him settle his worries.
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 77
Kudos: 1338
Collections: avatar tingz





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I posted a [deleted scene](https://silveryinkystar.tumblr.com/post/620623993735692288/a-few-of-you-guys-asked-to-see-the-extended-scenes) from [Step Into the Light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24648913) on my Tumblr a while ago, and with popular demand, decided to write a whole story around it. It didn't turn out like I'd planned, but I'm satisfied with the way it is right now.
> 
> I have a lot of Feelings about Zuko and his thoughts re: Azula's fall, so this turned out to be pretty sad. That being said, it's my headcanon that Zuko's pretty cagey about his feelings after releasing all his negative emotions in the form of anger for three years, but he's mostly well-adjusted after joining the Gaang.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!

They find him in his office.

 _The office_ being the study attached to Zuko’s bedchambers where he prefers to work during late nights. Mostly, Sokka’s come to understand, that means signing documents that have already been proof-read at least twice by Iroh-approved advisors or stamping letters with the official seal once they’ve arrived at their final draft. At any rate, the warrior doesn’t know why he didn’t think to check there first, after the throne room – the newly appointed Fire Lord has been pulling later ‘shifts’ and putting off sleep in order to work.

It’s Suki who suggests the study first, and Sokka mentally smacks himself upside the head. The two of them are the only ones remaining in the Fire Nation as of this morning, with the rest of their group in the city having fun shopping ( _without_ him). Sokka’s in hysterics and wondering if Zuko left with them (he can’t blame him, really) when he spots the red-robed form slumped against the wall of his study.

Suki sucks in a breath next to him, and it would be inaudible but for the way he’s tuned to her all the time when they’re together. It’s only then that he sweeps a look around the rest of the room – the place is a mess, which is the first warning sign that something is awfully, terribly wrong. Coupled with the sight of their friend huddled against the wall, it practically screams _crisis_ , and not the _we lost the Fire Lord three days into his reign_ kind.

This is a _Zuko_ crisis, which means it’s almost certainly become a meltdown, because the stubborn idiot has a habit of nearly running himself to the ground before asking for anyone’s help. He’s gotten slightly better at it, thanks to Toph. He doesn’t seem to be able to deny her anything, which would normally fill Sokka with warmth but doesn’t do anything to console him now. Iroh’s in the city with the others, and he doubts they can call him back in time to help them with whatever this is.

It’s up to Sokka and Suki now, and he hopes they’ll be enough.

His wonderful, brilliant girlfriend meets his eyes, having reached the same conclusion, and nods in the direction of the distressed Fire Lord before slipping towards the desk. Sokka takes that as a sign to join Zuko against the wall.

“Hey, buddy,” he announces himself softly as he slides down at Zuko’s right side. “We’ve been looking for you for a while now. Thought we’d lost you three days into your rule, which would be embarrassing for all of us.”

Suki frowns at him, but continues with her task of rearranging the piles of paperwork neatly like Zuko prefers. Sokka never would have assumed him to be a neat freak, but apparently it has to do with control or something along those lines. Whatever, he’s grown up with _Katara_ for a sister, and he can respect Zuko’s space.

“Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you?” he asks the Fire Lord gently.

Zuko shakes his head, the action nearly imperceptible but for the way his hair slips from where it’s tucked behind his ear..

“Do you want me to talk to you right now?”

A nod.

“Your uncle…?”

A light shrug. Sokka can barely see the furrow of Zuko’s brow though the curtain of loose hair falling over his face, but the gesture strikes him as slightly helpless. He snaps his gaze back to Suki, but obliges his friend and chatters on about nothing in particular until Zuko’s shoulders don’t look so tense, and the faint rise and fall of his chest evens out methodically like it’s something he’s practiced for ages. Knowing Zuko, it probably _is_ , and Sokka suspects it has nothing to do with the deep breathing he does before firebending in the mornings.

He slowly moves to wrap an arm around his friend’s shoulders, taking care to not startle or crowd him by accident. Zuko’s still pretty unpredictable about touch, but doesn’t really mind it if he’s prepared. Sokka can’t help it in these moments, but he really wants to up and sock Ozai in the face for messing up his son so badly and leaving him to learn what Sokka’s known since he was a kid alone. He already punched the loser on the day of Sozin’s Comet, but he really wants to do it again, or give Suki a go if she feels like it. Anything to see the former Fire Lord’s face decked.

Zuko tilts his head ever so slightly and his eyes flick to Sokka.

“Hey,” he says again.

“Hey,” Zuko rasps in reply. He sounds _awful,_ and now that Sokka can see them, his friend’s eyes are red-rimmed like he’s been crying. He doesn’t know what to think about this – Zuko rages and goes deadly quiet about Ozai, but he’s always refused to shed tears over the man. Sokka’s only seen him close to tears once, when they found Iroh along with the rest of the White Lotus members and Zuko was worried about the kind of welcome he’d get from his uncle.

“It’s Azula,” Zuko whispers, flicking his gaze to Suki and back to the floor when she sits before him in lotus pose.

“What about her?” Her voice is remarkably level, and Sokka remembers at the sudden glint in her eye that she and the other Kyoshi Warriors had been impersonated by the princess in Ba Sing Se. Thankfully, she’s careful not to let it show.

Words seem to fail Zuko, and he gestures silently towards a sheet of crumpled paper by his side. Suki takes it from him gently and scans it. Her eyes narrow before they’re taken over by something akin to sadness and pity. Some hint of curiosity must show on Sokka’s face, because she hands over the missive to him silently. It’s a lot of fancy language and medical jargon, but the gist is that Azula’s mental state is _bad_ and she’s in need of institutionalisation. It’ll probably take her years of treatment to get her close to the formidable princess she had been before Ozai decided to crown himself _Phoenix King_.

Sokka refrains from asking Zuko what he’s supposed to make of it, which turns out to be a good thing when the explanation bursts out of Zuko with no sign of stopping.

“ _He_ did this to her,” Zuko starts bitterly, and there’s no question of who ‘he’ is. “He always favoured her, but never appreciated Azula for who she was as a person – only her abilities mattered. I knew what he thought of me from the start, even if I didn’t want to admit it, but she was always _his_. But he only ever thought of her as – as a _tool_ , and he tossed her aside when he was done with her.

“The Fire Sages told me that he’d declared himself _Phoenix King_ and left for Ba Sing Se right before proclaiming Azula Fire Lord. I visited her yesterday, she was screaming into the air-” at this, Zuko let out a shuddering breath, and Sokka squeezed him to his side. “She was screaming, and when I could understand what she was saying – I – she thought _Mom_ was with her.”

Sokka doesn’t know a thing about Fire Nation Royal Family drama, apart from _Ozai bad_ , but Zuko had mentioned she’d left when he was about ten or so. Suki looks puzzled at this as well, but neither of them push for details.

“I felt terrible when I heard – I knew she was slipping, she was off her usual game in the Agni Kai, but I never thought – I never-” his voice cracks horribly with emotion, and it’s all Sokka can do to not start crying at his friend’s pain.

“Breathe, Zuko,” Suki reminds him, and Zuko gasps like he’s just been rescued from drowning. She inches forward and rubs his arm in time with his breaths, and he either instinctively follows the motion or calms down enough on his own.

“I know she did unspeakable things to you and the Kyoshi Warriors,” he says softly, and his voice is so small that Sokka wants to crush him in a hug. “And I’m not trying to excuse her actions, but… she had _no one_ in her corner. Not Ozai, not Uncle, not _me_.

“I don’t blame myself for letting her go, I _had_ to for my own sake, but I can’t stop thinking about how easy it must have been for Ozai to center her whole identity around his wishes and needs instead of – of-” he breaks off with a strangled sound, and Sokka _does_ wrap him in a tight hug this time.

Zuko’s shivering in his arms, and Suki’s hugging him from his other side so they’re all one messy pile of feelings. Sokka thinks he understands where Zuko’s coming from. If he and Katara had been in their places, well, he doubts he would have done anything else.

“I need you to look at me, buddy,” he says sternly, once Zuko stills. “Brother to brother: you’re not in the wrong here. As sad as this whole situation is, I _get_ what you mean. I’d be heartbroken if Katara… well. Point is, you’re not a bad brother for putting yourself before Azula.”

“I could have helped,” he says miserably.

“You’ve tried to confront Azula before. You know her better than we do, you’ve known her since she was born. Do you really think she might have accepted your help in the first place?” Suki asks gently.

A sniff, and a shake of his head.

“That’s what I thought. Ozai did a number on both of you, and I’m proud of you for getting out and choosing to become a better person – no, really,” she adds, off his stricken look. “We’re _all_ proud of you. It’s sad that Azula didn’t get the opportunity to choose the way you did, but she does now. She can get the best care in the Fire Nation and _choose_ , like you.”

Zuko remains silent, but in that thoughtful way that Sokka’s more accustomed to seeing in the young monarch.

“By the way, she has _you_ for a big brother. You, the _Fire Lord_ ,” Sokka adds pointedly, jabbing a finger into Zuko’s side for emphasis. “What’s stopping you from making sure that she can get the best of what she needs in her life from now?”

“You just need to remember that you can’t make her choose. It’s on her from now, whether she’ll improve or not. She has to make her own decisions, just like-”

“Like me,” Zuko finishes hoarsely. There are tears streaming from his eyes, but he looks less distraught than when they first sought him out. “Thanks, Suki, Sokka.”

“Hey, no worries,” Sokka brushes it away. “We’re your friends, it’s what we do for each other.”

A small, sad smile plays across Zuko’s lips. “Then… thank you for being good friends.”

Sokka can’t speak past the lump in his throat. For all his bluster, Zuko’s a huge softie at heart.

“Anytime, Zuko,” Suki answers thickly, and for a while, there is peace.

* * *

Zuko’s a wreck by the time they get Azula into the komodo-rhino carriage, with her screaming and fighting back and breathing fire at anyone daring to come within range. Aang isn’t too sure about the relationship his friend has with his sister, but it’s nothing like the bond Sokka shares with Katara. They’re watching from Zuko’s balcony as Azula is wrestled into a cast-iron, insulated carriage and escorted to the best facility in the Fire Nation.

The faint rattle of the wheels is punctuated by screaming and the occasional blast of blue fire flickering through the barred ceiling. Zuko’s shaking like a leaf in a storm next to him, and Aang lays a hand on his shoulder tentatively. Toph’s on the Fire Lord’s other side, and she gasps sharply just as Zuko’s breathing changes and he bursts into tears.

Aang yelps and moves aside as the distraught teenager stumbles into his bedroom. He tries to follow, but a gentle hand on his shoulder – Iroh’s – stops him.

“He’ll want to be alone,” the old general murmurs. “I’m the only person he’ll respond to when he gets like this, so I’ll go in after a minute.”

“Does this happen a lot?” Katara asks quietly. Zuko’s sobs carry over into the balcony a little too well for Aang’s liking, loud and painful-sounding, like they’re ripped right out of his heart. There’s something tragic about seeing Zuko fall apart like this. Aang and the others have never seen him cry, and for the most part he has a tight lid over his emotions that needs to be coaxed loose.

Iroh looks sad. “My nephew feels deeply,” he explains. “Ozai discouraged such open displays of emotion – he apparently said it was unseemly for a heir apparent – so when Zuko reaches the limit of what he can take silently, he tends to… explode.”

They’re all silent, and Aang has to hold back tears of his own. Toph looks like she wants to break for the cells and punch Ozai in the face. _Again_. Aang doubts he’ll try to hold her back this time.

“It happened the most after he was banished,” Iroh adds silently. “I assume you all know the circumstances behind why he left the Fire Nation the first time?”

Toph and Suki nod, while Katara and Sokka shake their heads. Aang… _thinks_ he knows, but isn’t too sure. All his suspicions come from the bits and pieces he’s put together from Zuko’s firebening lessons, when he chose to impart a few anecdotes from his childhood in hopes that it would help.

Iroh purses his lips and exhales before launching into the story of Ozai’s abuse, the fateful war meeting and the horrible mess of events that concluded in the former Fire Lord burning half his son’s face off and banishing him on grounds of a fool’s errand. Aang feels sick – he knows that Zuko had been looking for him for a while before they’d encountered each other in the South Pole, but to be sent away like that when he was thirteen, barely older than Aang is right now…

“It’s well known around the Fire Nation,” he concludes, “and I suppose it was spread around the Earth Kingdom as well?”

“I thought it was propaganda,” Suki answers quietly. “Something along the lines of ‘if Ozai won’t hold back against his own son, think about what he’ll do to _our_ people’. I didn’t even know the scar was real until I saw Zuko at the Boiling Rock.”

“I heard the rumours from my attendants and guards,” Toph pipes up, and Aang remembers suddenly that she was raised in a noble family. “I was only nine at the time, so I wasn’t really paying attention. I figured it must have been true when he got all worked up about it being on the wrong side in the play.”

Iroh opens his mouth like he means to ask _what play?_ and decides against it.

“I can’t believe-” Sokka breaks off, horrified by the revelation. “I knew Ozai was a terrible parent, but…”

Iroh shrugs sadly and silently moves to his nephew’s side. Aang bites his lip and joins them a moment later, landing lightly on the bed next to Zuko, whose heartbreaking cries have quieted into near-silent sobs. He’s shaking in Iroh’s arms, and his tears slow after a few long minutes. The others join them, and Toph characteristically nudges and elbows her way to Zuko’s side. He automatically wraps an arm around her as she nestles into his warmth.

“ _Breathe_ , Sparky,” she reminds him, and he sucks in a breath sharply. It’s shallow and doesn’t look like it brings in any amount of air into Zuko’s lungs, and the next exhale is shaky on its return. Aang’s already acting on his split-second idea before he realises he’s shuffling before him with a small flame in his upturned, cupped palms. Zuko’s eyes automatically flick to the light and Aang deliberately, slowly starts the meditative exercises that Zuko always insists are vital for stable firebending.

Aang’s still not entirely sure whether it will work, but he watches the rise and fall of Zuko’s chest even as the firebender’s eyes are fixed on the flame. It grows and shrinks with each inhale and exhale, just like Zuko taught him, and eventually Aang notices that the other boy’s breaths are perfectly in sync with his fire. Toph nods appreciatively, and he takes it to mean that Zuko’s heartbeat has slowed from what he’s sure was a frighteningly fast pace. Iroh catches his eye and shoots a grateful look at him. Aang keeps the fire going, since it does Zuko more good than harm right now.

“Do you think I could have stopped this from happening if I’d been a better brother?” Aang almost misses the question because of how painfully small Zuko’s voice is.

Iroh and Sokka look appalled. Toph starts badly, while Katara and Suki look too shocked to reply. The flame nearly sputters out of Aang’s hands, but he brings it back under control immediately.

“Zuko,” Sokka starts, but doesn’t know what else to say. He turns, wide-eyed, to Iroh, who bundles up his nephew in his arms more securely.

Toph pulls away when Zuko shifts, and the young monarch curls into Iroh’s arms miserably. Aang removes a hand from where he’s cupping the flame to gently tug Toph to his side, but only asks if they want to be alone.

Zuko shakes his head firmly, and the airbender’s heart swells with warmth at the amount of trust he’s displaying to them. Even a month ago, Zuko would have refused to show any sort of vulnerability before them. Iroh sighs and strokes a hand through Zuko’s hair gently, mulling over his words before speaking softly.

“I think I understand how you feel,” he says hesitantly. “I thought the same thing about my own brother several times in the past. I wondered what my father had done wrong, and why Ozai refused to see that even he was fallible. I suppose it was because he thought everyone else a fool, but later I came to realise that it was much worse.”

“He poisons everything he touches,” Zuko mumbles hoarsely, and Iroh exhales on a half-chuckle.

“Indeed, nephew. He did unspeakable, terrible things to you and your sister, but I want you to remember that none of it was your fault.”

“But I left,” he whispers, voice cracking with emotion. “I left her _here_ , with him. _Twice._ ”

“You had to do it for yourself,” Iroh soothes, pointedly ignoring Zuko’s inclusion of his banishment among the times he’s left Azula in the capital with Ozai. “Troubled as she is, your sister was incredibly toxic for you. Do _not_ blame yourself for leaving for a better place.”

Zuko looks like that’s exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t turn away from Aang’s little flame, which is still changing size evenly. He sighs, but doesn’t deny Iroh’s words. To be honest, Aang’s quite proud of his friend and teacher for all the growth he’s shown over the span of a few months, but that’s not what he needs right now.

“She wouldn’t have listened, anyway,” Zuko finally says, sounding more exhausted than Aang’s ever heard him sound. “She’s too much like _him_. Mom didn’t help her there, either. She was always with me.”

“Do you blame her?” Iroh asks gently, and Zuko considers this for a good while before shaking his head.

“I only blame Ozai.”

Upon hearing this, Iroh pulls Zuko closer to him and presses a kiss to his forehead. “And you are right to do so,” he whispers, blinking away tears of his own.

There’s a comfortable silence as Zuko wipes away the tears with his sleeve, then he speaks up. “When we returned here from Ba Sing Se, I thought… I thought she was the only one in my family I could actually connect with. Ozai was off in his war meetings, and you were – you were in the cells.”

Iroh squeezes his shoulder encouragingly, though his expression is sorrowful.

“She hadn’t changed at all, you know that? Three years, and she didn’t change a bit.” He laughs bitterly. “I know I was a bit of a brat on the ship, but I knew that I’d changed, even if I wasn’t sure of who I’d become.”

“You know now.” It isn’t a question, and Zuko smiles for the first time that day. It’s a barely-there smile, just a small tilt at the edges of his lips, but Aang’s never been happier to see it.

“Yeah, I do.”

* * *

The Earth Rumble tournaments were Toph’s first real taste of life. Her friends are the second, though at this point she might as well give in and call them her family. They certainly act like it, and not in the oppressive way her parents did. Even Katara doesn’t suffocate her with her motherly instincts. Sokka’s fun to tease, and she enjoys riffing with him when they’ve got nothing better to do. She’ll affectionately bully Aang and bond with Suki over Earth Kingdom traditions that they miss.

Her favourite, though, not that she’ll tell anyone, is Zuko. He’s stubborn and knows when to stand his ground, which Toph thinks would make him perfect for earthbending, and he isn’t afraid to meet a challenge head-on. The guy’s a huge softie, despite all his bluster and raw strength, and she can’t find it in her heart to tease him about it because it’s sweet, even if she can’t see it. It’s written all over his heartbeat, and the little skippy thing it does when he’s happy. The sensation doesn’t happen nearly as much as she’d like, so she takes it into her own hands to make it a regular occurrence instead of a rare phenomenon.

Her first order of business, she decides, is to punch Ozai in the face. Again.

She escorted him _personally_ to the cells and used her bending to strengthen the metal bars, and maybe also bend the lock into the rest of the gridlike structure. She’d been ready to join their little oddball group on Zuko’s _incredibly_ comfortable bed when he’d spoken up. Toph doesn’t remember what exactly the words were, only that they were a personal insult to her friend. She’d curled her hand into a fist, sending a pillar of rock shooting up to the ceiling with Ozai on it, not caring about the injuries she might have caused him. Then, with all her twelve-year-old-master-earthbender strength, she’d decked him in the face.

She hadn’t graced him with another response.

She can’t say that she regrets it, only that she didn’t beat the last sparks of fire out of him herself, that first day. Then at least she’d be spared of listening to Zuko’s heartbeat thrum off the walls while he’s interrogating the man about his mother. She hears him yelling indistinctly from where she’s leaning casually against the wall and raises an eyebrow when she senses him near the door. It creaks horribly as it swings open, and the rush of cold air across her face alerts to the fact that he practically shoved it aside, which isn’t too surprising considering the state he’s in.

“Bad news?”

He huffs, and she feels his heart racing. She suspects that it’s anger and not the near-constant anxiety he radiated during their first few days at the Western Air Temple, and can’t help the pride that seeps in at the observation.

“He won’t budge,” Zuko says through gritted teeth. “I left when he started calling Azula a failure.”

She winces. Toph doesn’t like the other girl, and has no idea why Zuko still holds out a hope for her, but she’s not going to burst his bubble. Hope isn’t the worst thing to have, anyway.

“It’s _wrong_ ,” Zuko adds. “Azula’s not meant to be a failure, and even though I know about his stupid standards-”

“Stupid is correct,” Toph points out helpfully.

“She’s not supposed to fail. I mean, considering she _was_ the standard, I don’t see how she could, but he’s the reason she broke apart. He doesn’t _get_ to say stuff like that when _he’s_ the reason she needs to stay in that facility for _years-_ ”

He breaks off and exhales slowly, counting down before inhaling just as deeply. Toph isn’t too worried about him losing control with his anger – on the contrary, she’s _proud_ that he feels this way. She says as much, and can feel his heartbeat change the way it does when he’s confused.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” he says nervously, and stops when she rests a hand on his arm.

“You told us all about your anger issues during the three years you were searching for the Avatar, and how you used it to fuel your bending. You took it out on a lot of people who didn’t deserve it, and while that isn’t the best thing you could have done, you understood why it was wrong and also channeled it into your bending.”

“I still don’t-”

“Shut up and listen,” she cuts him off, and tugs at his arm to signal that she’s ready to leave this place. “You weren’t angry at the world or yourself when you joined us. Something happened between Ba Sing Se and the Western Air Temple that made you realise that anger was not the way you could carry on.”

“Well, my father _did_ shoot lightning at me, but it was more the _raze the Earth Kingdom_ that did it in.”

Toph stops and stills at that. “He shot lightning at you?”

“Yeah, I redirected it. I _would_ have done the same with Azula, but she aimed for Katara.”

That explained… _so much_ , actually. Toph’s considering going into Ozai’s cell and slamming him into the ceiling several more times. And then punching him in the face, because why not.

“Huh. Well, you were a lot less hotheaded when you joined us, and while you were as skittish as one of those antelope things the others saw in the Si Wong Desert,” – Zuko makes a noise of protest at that, but she barrels on – “you weren’t angry at all, not the way the others described it.”

“I mean, I was annoyed a lot,” he recalls, but it’s more of an observation than a self-deprecating comment, which is good progress.

“Yeah, you’ve still got a temper. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as you don’t take it out on those who don’t deserve it. Right now, you’re angry at the right person.”

Zuko is silent for a really long time, enough for Toph to wonder if she said something wrong. She lets him think, though, if that’s what she needs – she can be patient. The badgermoles taught her well.

“I think you’re right,” he says at last. “I was so worried about – about everything, and I was so caught up in what _I_ could have done to help Azula that I forgot who was really to blame.”

“That’s a bit of a stretch, Sparky, you said that Ozai was behind _her highness’_ craziness many times yourself.”

“I don’t think I really thought about it until now,” he admits quietly. “I may not have been blaming myself, but I wasn’t blaming _him_ , either, until I talked with Uncle, _that_ day.”

“But you’ve figured it out. That’s good.”

“Yeah.” They’re outside now, and the sweltering heat of the prison melts away into the other, open-air heat that is typical for Fire Nation weather. It doesn’t bother Toph the way it does Sokka and Katara – she’s spent similar summers in Gaoling even before running away with the Avatar.

“Thank you, Toph,” Zuko says at last, and she grabs his hand when they’re on the wooden walkway. She isn’t sure what he’s thanking her for, exactly, but she takes a minute to grumble about the stupidity that is making a whole structure out of _wood_ in a country teeming with firebenders.

The Fire Lord snorts at this. Toph knows that he agrees, even if he doesn’t say it aloud.

“For the record,” she starts, and waits until she’s sure that Zuko’s attention is entirely on her. “I think you’re a great big brother.”

She can’t sense the change in Zuko’s heartbeat, but knows him well enough to expect it.

“I’m not worried about that anymore,” he says, surprised. “Right now, all I can do is hope that Azula won’t try to kill me the next time she sees me.”

“I wasn’t talking about Azula,” she mutters, feeling heat rush to her face.

There’s a momentary pause in his footsteps, nearly throwing her off-balance before he snaps back to attention. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I think you’re a great little sister too,” he admits shyly, and Toph grins. They’re on solid ground again, so she punches his arm affectionately without really letting go of it.

“Softie,” she mutters, but they both know that she’s pleased. “Hey, does this mean I’ll get a family discount at Uncle’s tea shop?”

Zuko chuckles, and it takes a moment to place the sound for what it is. She doesn’t think he’s heard him laugh once in the months they’ve known each other, though his smiles are apparently really easy to draw these days.

“Toph, you never pay Uncle for his tea. None of us do.”

“Ehh. Irrelevant.”

There’s a snicker now, and it takes all her willpower to hide her amazement at the action. She joins in, though, and the air about them is merrier than when they were going _towards_ the prison cells.

“You know that you can stay in the Fire Nation for as long as you want, right?” Zuko asks suddenly. “You don’t have to go back to Gaoling – or anywhere in the Earth Kingdom, for that matter.”

Toph considers the offer. “That’s not a bad idea, Sparky,” she says, and grins a little wider.

“That’s not a bad idea at all.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't planned to write a 2.5k word epilogue, but it just sort of... happened. Hope you all enjoy some Toph and Zuko bonding!

“Hey, Zuko,” Toph greets, sliding down the tree to sit next to him. The Fire Lord responds with a soft ‘ _hey_ ’ before going back to muttering about finances. Of all the things she thought he’d take to, single-handedly calculating and updating the Fire Nation’s budget was _not_ on the list. And yet, he’s incredible at it, the way Sokka is with schedules and strategy.

He doesn’t seem to show any sign of stopping his work, not even when one of the turtleducks waddles up to him and nips his hand lightly. She senses him absently petting the little creature, which snuggles into the contact for a minute or so before returning to the pond. She grins at the whole interaction.

Most people find Zuko intimidating at first glance. That included Katara, Aang and Sokka, for understandable reasons. It's easy to forgive someone for finding the other too intimidating when most of their initial interactions consisted of a lot of yelling and firebending while the latter chased them halfway across the world. Suki had met the dork when he was helping Sokka out in the Boiling Rock, and Toph can really understand why she wasn’t particularly spooked. Toph herself is the other exception to this apparent rule. Less because she can’t see the scar and more because any signs of threat about him had been overshadowed by how he seemed to be scared of messing up around them, _all the time_.

It helps that she took him under her earth tent, or whatever the metaphor’s supposed to be. He’d probably know, thanks to a combination of his mother, his uncle, and his love of theatre.

Still, most people don’t really see what she knows: and what she knows is that her big brother is a massive nerd and has a heart as gold as his headpiece.

“You’ve never bought me a birthday gift,” she comments, and _finally_ he looks up. She hears the rustling of paper as he presumably sets his scroll aside. It isn't even her birthday - really, it's closer to _his_ \- but he's ready to argue all the same.

“I’ve given you gifts before,” he protests. “I let you redecorate my throne room however you wanted for your thirteenth birthday.”

“That was just a way to cheat me out of payment for my services!”

“And I announced your Fire Nation citizenship status to your parents last year.”

“Maybe I just wanted to see you suffer,” she counters, and pauses. “They didn’t say anything to you, did they? I _do_ appreciate what you did.”

“I know, Toph,” he says warmly, gently pushing at her shoulder the way he does to turn her so that he can braid her hair. It’s not something she’s used to doing, and she still prefers a simple bun, but he’s gentle when removing the tangles (unlike anyone else handling her hair) and it’s a pretty neat way of calming both of them down when they’re stressed or angry or both. She turns without protest, and he quickly removes her headband and ties, slipping out his spare ribbon into his wrist even as he finger-combs her hair to get rid of tangles. The repetitive motion is so soothing that her eyes slip shut and she nearly dozes off under his ministrations. Then, she realizes that he’s been talking the whole time, and starts out of her reverie. “Huh?”

He chuckles. “I said, I didn’t mind confronting your parents. Even when they were yelling at me, I could only see those stuffy customers I had to deal with in the tea shop. The ones who’d ask me to bring them their tea withing a minute of ordering and get offended when it's just a cup of lukewarm, slightly flavoured water.”

She barks out a laugh. “Did you kick any of their faces in?”

“Uncle would have been disappointed if I did that,” he says, “but I was tempted. Many times.”

“I’d have kicked their faces in,” she mumbles, feeling drowsy as Zuko lifts a section of her hair, separating it into smaller sections, and starts braiding it into whatever style he had planned.

He laughs, and satisfaction sweeps through her at the sound. He doesn’t laugh nearly as much as an eighteen-year-old should. Instead, he’s burdened with the weight of ruling an entire country and bringing it out of a lifetime of war into an era of peace and love, as he’d promised on the day of his coronation. It was so very _Zuko_ of him to work tirelessly in order to keep that promise, and completely disregard the fact that he was also Fire Nation. Toph tries to remind him of this as much as she can, and she’s glad her efforts are getting through to him more. At this rate, he’ll be giggling like a love-struck schoolgirl by the time he’s twenty.

“You’re thinking,” he notes. “It’s weird.”

“You’d better not have meant it the way it sounded,” she warns, raising a fist.

“No, I meant – you’re thinking the way _Sokka_ does. And by that I mean overthinking.”

She’s slightly mollified by this, but only a little. “Maybe I am. So?”

“D’you want to talk about it? I’ve been told I give pretty good advice these days.”

She snorts. “Yeah, well, I know better.”

“Okay, you know what–”

“I was thinking about you,” she says. “And this.” She gestures to everything around them.

“The palace gardens?”

“You’re still not thinking big enough,” she complains. “I was thinking of the Fire Nation. How you changed it so much. Aang wanted to go to Fire Nation school, Sokka learned swordfighting from a Fire Nation master, Katara found a traumatised and twisted waterbender from her own tribe –”

“Katara did what?”

“The point is,” she presses, “it was so different, and all of that was only two years ago. You get so stressed about political instability and the well-being of your people sometimes, and… it’s like you forget that you’re actually helping them. You should go out into the towns and see it sometimes, it’s… amazing.”

Zuko’s hands still for a moment before he resumes his braiding. “It’s hard to remember,” he admits softly. “When most of the people I’m around are nobles with an agenda or ministers with their issues and concerns, I don’t really get to see the actual impact of my decisions outside of the palace.”

Toph understands. Really, she does. And she knows that right now, there’s no convincing him to take a vacation, especially since he’s in the middle of negotiating a treaty he’s ridiculously proud of formulating. At one point, when he’d fallen asleep at his desk (which happened more times than either of them cared to admit), he'd even started talking about the terms in his sleep and _debating them_. Yeesh.

“Look at the palace, then,” she offers. “Your advisors aren’t afraid to correct you when you’re too sleep deprived to remember your numbers right, or mess up your calculations. The ministers come to you with suggestions on improvements to systems that are already in place, or with ideas for new ones. Your _servants_ haven’t flinched at you once this whole year when you passed them in the corridor. Some of them even asked you about your job in Ba Sing Se, for spirits’ sake, and I'm pretty sure the cook's been trying to feed you all your favourite food until you're as big as the Boulder.”

“That was after I offered to make some tea for the kitchen staff,” he protests. “They’d naturally be curious about where _I_ learned to make tea, considering I was on a ship for three years, declared traitor and captured Ba Sing Se before returning, and finally actually turned traitor.”

“And become Fire Lord,” she says with a grin.

“And become Fire Lord,” he agrees simply, tying off her hair deftly. She feels the edge and is gratified that he didn’t make a bow like he did last time. She’d only found out because Sokka had been laughing at her the whole time, and Zuko hadn’t been able to walk on metal or earth without danger of falling for another month before he managed to convince her that it had been a subconscious action, because he’d braided Azula’s hair several times during their childhood (“Back when she didn’t hate me”).

She feels the braid lightly and grins when she recognises the style, leaning back carefully into Zuko’s side. He shifts until he’s comfortably pressed against the tree, and she lets her eyes slip shut as darkness calls to her.

She doesn’t miss how suspiciously thick his voice sounds when he says, “Thank you, Toph,” right before she falls asleep with his hand lightly running over her hair.

* * *

Zuko is in the gardens sneaking a moment between meetings to feed the turtleducks when Toph storms in. He senses her heat signature and instantly knows it’s her – too hot compared to other earthbenders, but too cool for a firebender, while being too rooted for a non-bender. His newly awakened heat-sense is strange, but he'll get used to it. At this rate, it means no more assassins can slip past his guards - he'll be able to sense them _well_ before they pose a threat to him.

“Toph, it’s good to see you,” he greets. “I didn’t think you’d return till next week.”

“Apparently, I overstayed my welcome,” she growls, and he swivels around. "The Boulder helped me get out with the other Earth Rumble contestants. I stayed with them for a few days."

“Did they not –”

“I haven’t seen them since I was _fourteen_ ,” she says, punching a support beam and leaving a sizeable dent in the metal, “and after four years, all they have to say is –” she breaks off and clenches her fists, breathing hard and deliberate in an attempt to calm herself the way he usually does during meetings. He makes a split-second decision and decides that the meetings can wait, and Toph is his immediate priority.

“Do you want to go spar for some time? I know how much beating things up –” _or people_ , he thinks, but doesn’t say – “makes you feel better.”

“You sure your mom won’t freak out at me?”

“She was mostly worried because of what Azula did when we were kids,” Zuko explains, resting a hand on her arm for a moment before dropping it. “She knows you don’t mean to harm me deliberately.”

“Yeah, genius, but that’s bound to happen when we’re sparring.”

He waves it off. “She’ll be fine. Besides, I can take it, I’ve been sparring with you for years.”

With that, the next hour passes with them exchanging blows, whacks from chunks of metal ripped from the walls (with promises to put them back, of course) and blasted with fire. They’re both out of breath by the end and collapsed on the floor, but no worse off for wear.

“Feel better?” Zuko wheezes. He’d executed one of the most advanced firebending techniques that had mostly been out of use in recent times that had taken a lot of energy out of him, which led to her catching him unawares and subsequently winning. The two of them were so used to fighting each other by now that they’d become more or less evenly matched, so more of their spars ended up in a draw than either of them winning.

“Yeah,” she replies breathlessly. “Loads.”

He grins on an exhale, and pushes himself up. “C’mon,” he says, grasping her forearm and hauling her up when she extends it. “I wanted to show you something. _Don’t_ ,” he adds when she opens her mouth to retort. She smirks and shrugs.

“Lead the way.”

He takes her through the palace and out into a secluded area that had been abandoned by the royal family during Fire Lord Azulon’s early reign. “It’s a surprise,” he tells her when they’re close enough that he can see it, but not enough for her to feel, “so do I have permission to carry you the rest of the way?”

She considers for a minute and shrugs. “Sure.”

Even now, he beams at the sign of trust. They’re basically siblings at this point, and Toph still hasn’t given up her requests for piggyback rides, even though it’s been _years_ since the incident at the Western Air Temple. Still, it’s polite to ask first. He kneels so that she can climb on easily, and is careful to lift her feet of the ground before he continues down the beaten path.

She laughs and loops her hands around his shoulders, lacing them across his chest. “How long have you had this planned?”

“Not long,” he admits. “You’d have figured it out if it had been any longer, actually.”

She un-loops her arms enough to prop one elbow on his shoulder. “Oh?”

“That’s all you’re getting out of me,” he says resolutely, stepping into the large cavern at last. He’s a bit winded from the spar and carrying her this far – she’s nearly too big for him to carry now, and he doesn’t know how he feels about it.

“Okay, I’m going to set you down now,” he warns, before doing exactly that.

She keeps one hand on his shoulder even after she regains her bearings, eyes widening involuntarily as she feels the earth beneath her feet. “What… _is_ this, exactly?”

“Have you ever been to a volcanic eruption site?”

“Yeah, when Aang got a spirit vision from Avatar Roku that one time. It was weird. The ground, and… Aang, during the vision. He’s weird too.”

Zuko hums in agreement. Aang's spiritual connection as the Avatar got a bit strange on occasion. “This site was in use until Fire Lord Azulon ruled, as an underground bunker or something. It’s got tunnels looping all around the place, and they connect to the bunkers you’d have seen during the invasion. Only problem is, they got blocked off by magma some fifty years ago, so this incredibly secure and labyrinthine section of the tunnels is entirely cut off from the rest. Hardly anyone knows it’s here.”

She’s practically vibrating in excitement, he notes happily, as she leans down and punches the ground once before reaching down to sense the whole layout.

“It feels like a field,” she marvels, “but there’s a whole network of tunnels underneath.”

“The earth here is incredibly fertile, even for a volcanic site. And here’s the most interesting bit,” he says, knowing she'll sense his excitement, “the bunker was shaped by the solidifying magma. There’s no human construction there apart from the old tunnels. Perfect for exploring, wouldn't you say?”

She stands, staring at him with sightless eyes.

“Happy birthday, Toph.”

She practically lunges towards him, and he staggers back under the force with which she collides into him.

“You know when I said you’re a great brother all those years ago, when you came back from yelling at Ozai?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I take it back,” she says, hugging him tightly, “You’re the _best_ big brother I could have asked for.”

He grins and hugs her back, just as tight. The words get stuck in his throat, but she understands. And right now, that’s all that matters.


End file.
